For better or worse, Phil Dawson has seen the whole bloody expansion era.

He was the Browns’ place-kicker when they debuted in the 1999 Hall of Fame Game. He helped kick the Browns into the 2002 playoffs, and has played for all four of the head coaches the Browns have tried since then.

There he was Saturday, an institution, kicking a 49-yard field goal to open the scoring in a scrimmage at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

There he was afterward, having had his fill of worse, sensing that maybe this will be a better year.

“There’s a certain energy and optimism,” Dawson said as he walked through the tunnel afterward. “There’s a quiet confidence.”

A crowd of about 15,000 turned out to watch a “game” in which quarters lasted 10 minutes and tackling was prohibited — one fairly innocent bump by rookie Clifton Geathers drew a 15-yard penalty from a live crew of NFL officials.

There was as much energy as one could expect from a crowd whose team has gone 9-23 the last two seasons, and didn’t look all that exciting in the scrimmage.

Seneca Wallace, who quarterbacked the losing team, promised things will look much different when the hitting starts. Saturday’s stakes for losing were small. The losing team had to be back in the team hotel, where it is staying for the three weeks of training camp, by 11 p.m.

Curfew was lifted for the winning side.

It was all in good fun. One of the winning players laughed out this message to Wallace while he was trying to do a group interview: “All I know is, if I see Seneca out tonight, I’m snitching.”

The Browns rarely come out to play in December. They have been in one playoff race in the last seven years. The hope meter has been rising, though, ever since Mike Holmgren was hired as team president while the ‘09 team was finishing off a four-game win streak.

The Browns’ popularity has risen further now that fans are united in the thought that they can’t stand the Heat, so to speak.

“I heard it a few times while we were signing autographs,” safety Mike Adams said. “People were saying, ‘LeBron is gone. It’s all you.’

“One way you can look at that is ... does that mean we were nothing when LeBron was here? But I’ve learned since being in Cleveland ... people here like baseball. They like basketball. They’re crazy about football.”

Ejected and then scolded

Fans got a laugh out of the polite manner in which the referee told Marcus Benard and Scott Kooistra they were going to “watch the rest of the scrimmage from the bench.”

Head Coach Eric Mangini wasn’t amused by a fight that got Kooistra, an offensive tackle, and Benard, an outside linebacker, kicked out.

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“We’re not going to fight in practice,” Mangini said. “We’ll have plenty of chances to show how tough we are.”

Flip, or no flip?

All by himself, knowing he would score easily after picking off Colt McCoy, cornerback Brandon McDonald played to the crowd, doing a front flip into the end zone.

“I’m not a big fan (of such celebrations),” Mangini said. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

McDonald, who hadn’t heard Mangini’s comment, defended his flip, saying he made a similar maneuver against the Eagles in 2008.

“I was just celebrating,” he said. “When you get in the end zone, it’s a big play for the defense, a big play for the Browns’ team.”

Mangini said McDonald, a former starter who now looms as the No. 4 cornerback, is having “a really nice camp.”

Moore clicks later

Tight end Evan Moore’s bid for a roster spot hit a couple of glitches. First, he caught a little sideline pass and fumbled as he turned upfield.

Later, he was called for holding.

Moore bounced back early in the second half with a nice catch over the middle from Seneca Wallace. Late in the scrimmage, he beat a safety to get open and haul in a 20-yard Seneca Wallace throw for a first-and-goal on the 5.

Moore, a former Stanford wide receiver, said Wallace impressed him.

“Everything about him is really smooth,” Moore said. “He’s a cool dude out there.”

Extra points

• No. 1 right guard Floyd “Pork Chop” Womack was nailed for a false start and a holding call. The hold came after the Brown team’s offense had reached first-and-goal at the 3.

• The Browns called it Family Day, and it had that look. Lured by free admission, moms and dads walked into the stadium with children of all ages. One burly fellow was seen carrying what looked to be a 1-year-old like a football.

• There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the scrimmage kicked off more than seven hours before sunset. But for some reason it opened with the stadium lights on.

• Joshua Cribbs received a big cheer when he was introduced before catching his first punt. He made a fair catch, which he almost never does in real games.